According to sociologists and psychologists, many Vietnamese are sticking to “free sex” trend – one can have sexual relations with several partners at the same time.

A DNA and genetic analysis center in Hanoi

Experts said that this is the indispensable impact of the economic development and the change of values in social life. It is time to acknowledge this issue seriously because it is spreading among the youth and even some middle-aged people.

Evidences for the development of “free sex” trend in Vietnam are very clear at DNA and genetic analysis center in Hanoi. The center director, Nguyen Thi Nga, told VietNamNet many awkward stories resulted from “free sex”.

Nga said many women took their children to the center to test their DNA to find their fathers. Many middle-aged men also brought several kids to the center to define whom of them are their own children.

“A man could not find his biological child after four tests with four kids though he has supported all four kids and their mothers since the women were pregnant,” Nga said.

“It proves that these women had sexual relations with at least one other man besides the middle-aged man,” Nga analyzed.

She revealed that up to 40 percent of clients of her center detected that the children they were supporting were not their biological children.

Nga also said that recently, many pregnant women visited her center to test the DNA of the foetus. Most of these women are adulterers and they didn’t know about the father of the child. If the child’s father is their husband, they will keep it otherwise they will have abortion. They are willing to pay VND12 million ($600) to have testing results after four hours. Normally, clients know testing results after 9 days, at the cost of VND4 million ($200).

She said that some rural people also visited the center. They are husbands who suspect that their wives having extramarital relations with someone. The number of people going to Nga’s center is on the rise.

In recent years, the local media has reported many phenomena that shows the development of “free sex” trend in Vietnam. Phrases like “group love making” and “taking group sexy photos” appear on many online forums of teenage and some young people see them as fashionable.

Articles about office adultery and the boom of private hotel business to serve adulterers at noon have attracted the public.

Dr. Khuat Thu Hong, Vice Director fo the Institute for Social Development said that these stories are the sign of free sex trend. Many married people still have sexual relations with others and many single people have sexual relations with several partners at the same time.

“Everybody has the right of sex freedom and they have the right to choose their partners and their sexual behaviors but if proper precautions are not taken free sex may bring about serious consequences for themselves and society,” Dr. Hong said.

Dr. Nguyen Hoi Loan from the Psychology Faculty of the Hanoi University for Social Sciences and Humanity said that family relations in Vietnam are being harmed because of the modern life, in which people are very busy and they don’t have time for their families.

Dr. Hong said that Vietnamese society lacks conditions (systematic education of sex, lack of sympathy for divorced people, etc.) for people to engage in healthy free sex.

According to this expert, free sex can be divided into several groups.

The first group includes married couples who face problems in marriage. However, they cannot divorce because in Vietnam, it is something very bad. They seek balance by having sexual relations with others.

The second group includes married people who don’t have problems in marriage but they can still have sexual relations with others when they cannot be open with their husband/wife in sex. In Vietnam, sex is still considered as a taboo topic.

“This shows the collision between the old and the new value, which has not been accepted in Vietnam. Vietnamese still praise family value and a person’s success is linked with family so many people don’t dare to break their families,” Hong analyzed.

The third group are young people, including teenagers. When they are not controlled by families, they live on their own and develop sexual behaviors of their own.

The last group are single people who have sexual relations with different partners to change their feelings or to escape from stress at work.

“Free sex will boom in Vietnam because economic independence of individuals is being enhanced so they are not tied down by family relations,” Hong said.

“I think that free sex with the above negative acts is not good because when we see sex as a tool to deal with some matters. There will be emerging matters such family break-ups, threats of diseases, problems related to children, etc,” she said.